Combat
Work In Progress Combat in Endless Space 2 is split into two parts: combat between ships and combat between soldiers. Both of these forms of combat in the game are able to be customized. Ship Combat Ship combat takes place in orbit around systems. It occurs when one of two fleets of factions not at peace attacks the other fleet. From this position, the attacked fleet has 2 options, fight or retreat. Fight * A fight will result in both fleets entering the battle field, divided into flotillas (groups of ships). Each flotilla will move in a path determined by the Battle Strategy selected before battle. The battle will begin, the flotillas will follow their paths, and the ships will fire weapons at each other, until reaching the end of their paths. At this point, the battle ends. The battle will also end if either side loses all the ships in their fleet before they reach the end of their paths. Retreat * If a fleet is given the order to retreat, it will attempt to leave the system before being destroyed by the opposing fleet. The retreating fleet will take damage, and begin moving through a neighboring star lane. Strategy Ship combat has three major factors which determine its outcome: design of ships, tactics used, and use of flotillas. Design of Ships Space Combat If you are at war with someone or in cold war and not in their controlled space while in the same system you can attack an opposing fleet. Combat is split into three phases which mainly effect ranges that you are at and any in combat heals that your modules give you. Ranges There are 3 ranges you can be from your opponent, short, medium, or long. Weapons do a specific percentage of damage while in the different ranges, torpedoes for instance do 100% at long range, 50% at medium range, and 25% at short range. The range you are at is effected by the tactics card used. You well always start at the longest range on yours or your opponents tactics card for each flotilla. Each combat phase you get 1 space closer to your opponents until you reach the closest range for that flotilla on the tactics cards. Flotilla These are the groups that your fleet is placed into for combat. You always need to place at least one ship in flotilla 2. You can edit which flotilla a ship is in by hitting the advanced button and then dragging and dropping the ship. If there are no ships in the corresponding flotilla on the opponents side your ships well fire at the other flotillas using their weapons long range stats. Tactics Cards Tactics cards effect 2 things, the range you are going to and the bonuses you get for that combat. * First is the ranges for each flotilla, these show how close your trying to get your ships to your opponents. The blue bar represents the range your attempting to get to, left is long, middle is medium, and right is short. * The middle shows what kind of buff the card gives, shield is defensive, a lighting bolt is attack, and >| is for after battle benefits. * The bottom tells you what specific benefits the card gives. In the case of turtle flotillas 1 and 2 well attempt to get to short range and flotilla 3 well go for medium range. You well also get a buff to the amount of damage absorbed. Weapons There are multiple different kinds of weapons which are split into two categories, projectile and energy. They almost always do the same damage whenever they hit but have a chance to miss when attacking smaller targets or at non optimal ranges. Projectile * Kinetic Kinetic weapons are basically a flak cannon. They are mainly effective at short ranges. They do have the added benefit of shooting at any strike craft or missiles that get close to the ship. * Torpedoes Torpedoes are effective at long range and get less effective the closer to the enemy they get. They can be shot down by kinetic weapons. * Swarm Missiles Added with the free community update, swarm missiles work the same as torpedoes but they fire many smaller missiles to overwhelm the defenses that kinetic weapons give. * Railgun Also added with the free community update, railguns ignore the defenses of an opponents ship altogether but have a lower dps then many other weapons because of it. They hit more at close range. Energy * Laser Lasers have a high hit chance at medium range and less at long and short ranges. * Beam Beams are unique in the fact that they have a 100% hit chance regardless of the range to your opponent. They have a fairly low dps because of this though. Defenses Defenses are split between 2 kinds, armor and shields. Both do mitigate both kinds of damage but are better at one kind then the other. * Armor Armor is mainly for mitigating projectile weapons, it also gives a health bonus to your ships. it works by causing all weapons do do a percentage less damage to your ship. does not really work for mitigating energy weapons * Shields Shields work as a barrier between you and your enemy. They reduce the damage done by absorbing it with the shield hp rather then your hp pool, the rest goes through to hit the ship. Primarily used as energy defense, works decently but not as well for projectile weapons.